Inside Man

[Epic Reine 0]

Saw this last night and thought it was awesome. Loved the ending and Clive Owen is so bad ass, he's gonna be huge one day. Denzel was excellent in his role too.

 

I definatley recommend this one.

[Downhome 0]

Here are a few of my thoughts about it that I posted on DVDTalk:

 

-I just got back from seeing this one. It's a really fresh take on an old idea, and it's executed perfectly (the plot). I agree with the previous statement about the film not really being the one they are advertising as well, but that's not a bad thing. It's a really smart, fantastically acted flick. It's also one that I have a feeling that you wont entirely be able to take it all in in a single viewing.

 

-One more quick thing. While the acting is indeed fantastic, I didn't really feel any "award winning" performances or anything like that. It was just very solid, all across the board. This flick is more about the story, and the great direction.

 

-It also made me laugh out loud more than once, and I wasn't alone on that either.

 

-I got a film noir feel while watching it. I guess it's because Denzel was in Devil In A Blue Dress, the hat he wears in the film, certain use of shadowing here and there, as well as some of the music in certain scenes.

 

-I'd agree with a rating of B- or B+, overall.

 

-I also didn't see the point in the "judging a book by it's cover" stuff either. Anyone who has seen the flick will know instantly what we are all more than likely talking about in that respect.

 

On a side note, Clive Owen should have been the new James Bond, but hopefully he can move on to even greater things since that didn't happen. That guy is going to end up being "the" actor one of these days pretty soon. I could easily see Clive Owen and George Clooney being the two top actors in Hollywood.

[Guest Vitamin X]

I agree wholeheartedly on Clive Owen. I'm hugely impressed by him, with great performances even in King Arthur, Closer, and apparently now this movie. In fact, I'm seeing it more for him than I am for Denzel.

[Dangerous A 0]

Clive Owen 0wned every scene he was in.

 

Inside Man is a very good movie and recommended.

[MDH257 0]

On a side note, Clive Owen should have been the new James Bond, but hopefully he can move on to even greater things since that didn't happen. That guy is going to end up being "the" actor one of these days pretty soon. I could easily see Clive Owen and George Clooney being the two top actors in Hollywood.

 

Clive Owen dosen't need to be James Bond. It would have only held him back from doing better things.

[Downhome 0]

Of course he doesn't need to be. That doesn't change the fact that I think he would have been fantastic in that role, and I hate that I'm not going to be able to see it happen. Bad for me and other fans, more than likely good for him.

[SuperJerk 0]

'Inside Man' races ahead of competition

Washington, Owen lead thriller to $29 million weekend

 

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Denzel Washington's reunion with Spike Lee put them on the inside track at the box office.

 

Their bank-hostage thriller "Inside Man," an unusually commercial project for director Lee, debuted as the No. 1 weekend film with $29 million -- the best opening ever for both the filmmaker and his star, according to studio estimates Sunday.

 

Universal's "Inside Man" knocked off the previous weekend's top movie, the Warner Bros. action tale "V for Vendetta," which slipped to second with $12.3 million. "V for Vendetta" raised its 10-day total to $46.2 million. Warner Bros. and CNN are owned by Time Warner Inc.

 

Disney's fright flick "Stay Alive," featuring Frankie Muniz in a tale about a video game that brings death to its players, premiered in third place with $11.2 million.

 

The weekend's other new wide release, Lionsgate's "Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector," a gross-out romp starring comic Dan Whitney investigating a food-poisoning outbreak, opened at No. 7 with $7.05 million.

 

Stung by declining revenues over the last year, Hollywood broke out of its latest slump, with the top-12 movies grossing $98.9 million, up 10.6 percent from the same weekend a year ago. The upswing followed a month of declines.

 

The solid weekend was a prelude to this Friday's debut of the animated sequel "Ice Age: The Meltdown," considered an early lead-in to a summer season that launches with Tom Cruise's "Mission: Impossible 3" on May 5.

 

"This was a good kickoff to what I think will be a pretty good run leading up to summer," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

 

"Inside Man," starring Washington, Jodie Foster and Clive Owen in a story of cops against robbers during a Manhattan bank heist, exceeded box-office expectations for distributor Universal, which had figured on a $20 million weekend at best.

 

Lee and Washington's earlier collaborations include "Malcolm X" and "He Got Game."

 

At $29 million, "Inside Man" topped Washington's previous best opening weekend of $22.8 million for "Man on Fire" and Lee's previous best of $11.1 million for "The Original Kings of Comedy."

 

Two-thirds of viewers for "Inside Man" were older than 30, a promising sign for Hollywood, whose key audience of young males has been less inclined to go to the movies with so many other entertainment distractions such as video games and DVDs.

 

"They were motivated to go. They love the material, they love the actor," said Nikki Rocco, Universal's head of distribution. "It's the motivation to get them to go to the movies, and I hope that we as an industry keep that up. If we want the business to survive, we have to continue to find ways to motivate them."

 

"Inside Man" also took in $9.6 million over its opening weekend in 18 other countries.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/03/...e.ap/index.html

[Guest fanofcoils]

This movie was really bad plus it got me dizzy (for the first time since Serenity and I've seen like 20 movies since then in the theater or on DVD and none of them got me dizzy). This is definitely a movie worth avoiding.

 

Random thoughts on why it was horrible:

 

Boring scenes with Jodie Foster and "Arthur Case". None of these scenes establish why you should be interested in watching them when they are SO boring. It is sad that Lazy Foster barely takes on any roles and then she takes on this role instead of something much better and more substantial.

 

After the cop who discovered the hostage situation inside, the movie continues to go back to this cop throughout the movie after he already did his purpose. And I was like, am i supposed to care about this guy, he was REALLY annoying (but of course not in his first scene).

 

Not much action between Denzel and Clive Owen or any big twists during the hostage situation which REALLY made this movie pathetic considering you would think there would be a lot of interesting twists and turns.

 

The fact that Denzel didn't check the briefcase to see if it was bugged, that wasn't believable AT ALL.

 

So Clive Owen hides behind the Dell boxes for a week, and the cops never checked behind there? Not believable at all once again.

 

The Spike Lee music which initially was OK but after so many bad parts of the film, it just made the film even worse. It is like Spike Lee isn't even taking this movie seriously and instead is making it into a "typical Spike Lee film".

 

Denzel's character was pretty lame and showed no difference from some/all of his characters in the late 80s/early 90s. His partner was pretty lame too as it seemed Denzel did everything and his partner was a yes man, however I'm not sure if his partner had as much or nearly as much authority as Denzel in the movie, either way his partner didn't add much at all to the movie.

 

So how did the 3 other bad guys escape the bank? Through the sewer? That can be the only assumption, the movie never explained it or didn't explain it well.

 

Some dizzy stuff in the middle of the movie, the camera was spinning around at one point though I got dizzy before this scene, and I forgot why exactly (probably there was a lot of constant camera movement which as usual serves no purpose).

 

The fact that they showed what happened after the hostage/bank situation with all the victims in the police station being interviewed throughout the movie, that was a big mistake and took away a lot of the suspense of the movie.

 

Clive Owen being so nice to the kid, I didn't buy that. I could see him being not as mean and somewhat nice perhaps but not "that nice".

 

The movie was TOO LONG and a lot of the minutes accomplished nothing. For this bad of a movie, it could have been easily a half hour - 45 minutes shorter.

 

The lack of an interesting plot involving the box/the ring/the document/all that stuff revolving around Jodie Foster and "the old guy".

 

Willem Dafoe in a wasted role because he wasn't an interesting character at all.

 

The too laid back attitude of Denzel and his partner (or whatever he was to Denzel). And while I think Denzel has been good in some roles, in this one he has no charisma and is annoying and the wife scenes were boring because why should we care about their relationship if we don't care about either of the characters.

 

Clive Owen and Denzel "bumping" into each other, how cliche was that!

 

The movie did focus on a few annoying hostages (like the Chinese guy who looks like the guy from Harold and Kumar, the annoying girl who looked somewhat like Brenna from American Idol, and another weird looking guy they were focusing on who right now I forgot his physical description).

 

I love good movies and sadly this wasn't one of them

[Guest fanofcoils]

I think the main reason why this movie was so bad is because of the lack of focus on Clive Owen/Denzel Washington in the bank situation (instead the movie focuses on a lot of other stuff) and the lack of interesting twists and good action in the bank situation. I give this movie half a star or 1 star out of 4 because in the beginning I thought it was a 3 star movie but it went downhill pretty quickly.

[2GOLD 0]

Here we go again. It's like waiting for Mt. St Helen's to erupt.

I'll see it sometime this upcoming weekend, maybe before I see Ice Age 2.

[muzz 0]

Well now I know it's a good movie.

[Guest fanofcoils]

You must have poor taste in movies.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Aw, man. Spike Lee directed that movie? I might have to re-think whether or not I want to watch this now.

[Black Lushus 0]

I was sold on Clive Owen last year after seeing Closer and then Sin City...he's definently going to be a big star...I wouldn't like him as James Bond, though he would make a great Bond villian.

 

Anyway, this movie...hmmmm, I'll probably just scoop it up on DVD once it hits the Used Bin at Hollywood Video.

[Guest fanofcoils]

A couple more bad points of the movie:

 

Willem Dafoe ignoring Denzel saying not to go into the bank. That wasn't believable at all.

 

The cops shooting all the people who first came out of the bank at the end. That wasn't believable at all once again.